In Google Chrome you can work with multiple profiles. To work with multiple accounts or profiles, you must add the profile in Google Chrome.
Adding a user profile does not immediately require a Google account. It is possible to create a guest profile or a profile without Google account to add in the browser.
If you use multiple profiles in Google Chrome, this helps to prevent other users from using your browser settings, extensions and your browser history. Working with multiple profiles makes a distinction between the data per profile.
It is still possible to switch between different profiles. I can imagine, for example, that you might want to add an additional profile to distinguish between family and personal, or between work and a home account.
In this article you can read how to add a profile to the Google Chrome browser, and how you can switch between different profiles, each with its own Google Chrome data, extensions and browser settings.
Add profile to Google Chrome browser
To add a profile open the Google Chrome browser. In the Chrome browser, click on the current profile in the top right corner. This can be an icon from your Google account or the default icon if a default profile is present. It depends if you have Google account synchronized or not.
You can choose to add a Guest profile or a normal user profile.
Guest user in Google Chrome
If you use a guest profile in Google Chrome, no profile will be added. Instead, the guest window opens. The pages you view in this guest window are not visible in the browser history and do not leave any traces (such as cookies) on the computer after you close all open guest windows. Files you download are retained.
Read more about a Guest user in Google Chrome here.
Add new profile to Google Chrome
When you create a new profile in the Google Chrome browser, a window will open to help you set up the new profile. You can apply various settings through this window.
First you will be asked whether you want to set up a new profile with or without an account. This concerns a Google account with which you can manage data such as browser history, extensions and profile settings. You can synchronize this data via a Google account to various devices with which you log in with the Google account.
Make your choice to continue with or without an account. In this example, I'll continue without an account, since I linked as an account.
You can now adjust the Chrome profile you are going to add. You can enter a recognizable name, select a theme color and create a shortcut.
This shortcut becomes a desktop shortcut that immediately opens Google Chrome with the new profile. Two new shortcuts will appear, both with everyone's profile on the desktop.
Click Done when the additional profile has been customized.
Once the profile has been added to Google Chrome, you will immediately see how you can switch between the profiles in the browser. Click on it and select the desired profile to start browsing with it.
If the added profile has not enabled synchronization, you can only use data on the PC where you added the profile.
If you open Google Chrome without the profile shortcut via the “normal shortcut”. You will then be notified which profile you want to use. You can disable this notification by disabling “Show at startup”.
To delete a second profile, click on the three horizontal dots and click delete.
Also read:
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!
I have a question,
I have 4 Chrome profiles on my PC, namely mine, my children and my friend.
I use the PC the most.
What's annoying is that when I click on a link in my email, the Chrome browser automatically starts in my friend's Chrome profile.
where and how can I change this and set it so that the chrome browser starts in my profile?
Kind regards, Nathasja
Hello, the only thing you can set in Google Chrome is that Chrome asks at startup which profile you want to use. It is therefore not possible to always set a standard via a link in an email, Chrome takes the first. To set Chrome to ask which profile you want to use:
Open Google Chrome. Click on the profile icon at the top right. Click on the gear icon next to “other profiles”. Enable the “Show at startup” option at the bottom right.
Success!
Best PC tips,
What a good and informative article, thank you!
The reason I ended up on this page is because I googled adding a Chrome profile. I have already added two profiles to my Chrome browser and that works fine. I have a different Chrome account for the organization I volunteer for. I would also like to add that, to keep the browser options nicely separated.
The only strange thing is, when I view the “Other profiles” section in Chrome, in the browser, I do not see the “+ Add” option to add a new profile.
If I am logged in to a page with (for example) my personal profile and view the profiles there, I see multiple profiles and I can “Add another account”.
I have already looked this up in Google Help and reported it at the bottom of the page, but I did not get a response.
Great if you can help me with this!
Kind regards,
Dennis
Hello, I suspect there is a policy active in the Chrome browser that prevents this. You can check this via chrome://policy/ in the address bar. At the bottom of the link there is a possible solution, hopefully it will work after this:
https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/114731113/chrome-sync-personalities-can-t-add-new-profile?hl=en
Other option: Reinstall Chrome.
Success!
Hi Stefan,
Thank you very much for your response! Policy everywhere says “No policy set”. But I think I should be able to find something in the link you provided. 👍 great, thank you!
Greetings Dennis
Top! Good luck 🙂